Honorary Professors

Professor Jonathan Powell

Honorary Professor, Jonathan Powell, was Chief of Staff to Tony Blair from 1995 to 2007 and from 1997 to 2007 was also Chief British Negotiator on Northern Ireland.

He is Director of Inter Mediate; from 1978-79 he was a broadcast journalist with the BBC and Granada TV and from 1979 to 1994 a British Diplomat. He is author of Great Hatred, Little Room: Making Peace in Northern Ireland, The New Machiavelli: How to Wield Power in the Modern World and Talking to Terrorists: How to End Armed Conflict. ‌‌

Professor Peter Sheridan

Peter Sheridan has been CEO of the Peace Building Charity Co-operation Ireland since 2008. The all-Island organisation works at both a strategic and grass roots level.

In 2011, it enabled the first state visit of Queen Elizabeth to the Republic of Ireland and the reciprocal visit of the President of Ireland to the United Kingdom. In 2012, the organisation helped facilitate the historic handshake between the Queen and then deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, Martin McGuinness.

Professor Peter Robinson

Peter Robinson was First Minister of Northern Ireland from 2008 to 2016. He also served as Minister for Regional Development and Minister for Finance and Personnel in the Northern Ireland Executive.

He has been involved in Northern Irish politics for over 40 years – over 30 of them as MP for Belfast East. He was a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Belfast East from 1998 until 2016, and Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 2008 until 2015.

Professor Mitchel McLaughlin

Mitchel McLaughlin served as Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly from 2015 until 2016, Principal Deputy Speaker from 2013 until 2015 and Assembly Private Secretary to the Minister for Education from 2011 to 2013.

Involved in politics for over 50 years, he also served as an MLA for Foyle from 1998 to 2003 and South Antrim from 2007 until his retirement in 2016. Mr McLaughlin was also Chairman and later General Secretary of Sinn Finn.